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New Adult Books August 2026 |
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Cool Machine
by Colson Whitehead
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead, an exuberantly entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in the magnificent final volume of his Harlem Trilogy 1981. New York City is beginning to emerge from financial ruin and decline, energized by rampant real estate development and a Wall Street unchained by Reagan-era predatory capitalism. Up in Harlem, successful business owner/master fence Ray Carney has just been named Sterling Furniture's Dealer of the Month. When the banks won't give his beloved wife Elizabeth a loan for her new travel agency, however, Carney gambles on one last heist, and finds himself entangled with a legendary criminal mastermind. 1983. To some, Carney's friend and partner in crime, Pepper, is a stone-cold sociopath. To others, a top thief with questionable people skills. Either way, he's feeling his age in his troubled gut and his aching bones. When he takes on a bodyguard gig as a favor to Elizabeth, he's plunged into the alien territory of the East Village art and club scene. Luckily for him, whether you're uptown or down, everyone speaks the same language of violence--Pepper is a native speaker. 1986. Carney has always been haunted by his inability to save his cousin Freddie. Now, twenty years after Freddie's death, he has a chance to rescue Freddie's son from the violent forces of the city. But coming out of retirement and teaming up with Pepper again will mean risking the safety and security he's spent decades building for his family, with only one shot to get it right. With his usual pitch-perfect prose, Whitehead paints a portrait of a city in transition, where shimmering skyscrapers rise to the heavens as displaced people huddle in abandoned tunnels below. In a dazzling display of protean imagination, Cool Machine roves all over the city, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, to show that in New York, and in the lives of Whitehead's vivid characters, it's what's below the surface that reveals the truth.
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The Story Keeper: A New Novel from the Author of the Things We Cannot Say
by Kelly Rimmer
AN INDIE NEXT PICK - A LIBRARY READS #1 TOP PICK Kelly Rimmer is at her most skillful here... An emotional, haunting tale. --Julia Kelly, internationally bestselling author of The Dressmakers of LondonThe literary twist of Patti Callahan Henry's The Secret Book of Flora Lea meets the family secrets of Kate Morton's Homecoming when a woman discovers a curious novel in the library of her crumbling gothic estate, whose uncomfortably familiar story ultimately brings a generations-old mystery to light.In the aftermath of a tumultuous year, Fiona Winslow finds solace in the decaying grandeur of Wurimbirra, the rambling family estate she once called home. Intent on restoring it, she discovers the keys to more than just the dilapidated mansion--beneath the crumbling plaster and dust are secrets that have been buried for a generation.When a curious book, The Midnight Estate, catches her attention in her late uncle's library, Fiona is plunged into a tale that mirrors her own--a story of love, loss and betrayal. But as the lines between fiction and reality blur, Fiona must ask herself: Is the true mystery the one hidden within the walls of her ancestral home, or is it within the pages of a book that chose her as much as she chose it?Told in a dual narrative and set against the Gothic backdrop of Wurimbirra, Kelly Rimmer, bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say, weaves an intricate and compelling tale, inviting readers into the heart of a family's deepest secrets with an absorbing book-within-a-book mystery.Kelly Rimmer always delivers a poignant story with real characters who lodge themselves in your heart. --New York Times bestselling author Madeline MartinFor more by Kelly Rimmer, look for Before I Let You Go The Things We Cannot Say Truths I Never Told You The Warsaw Orphan The German Wife The Paris Agent
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Men Like Us
by Carson Markland
The surprising, poignant Kennedy story you don't know, with the enigmatic Bobby Kennedy at its heart Bobby Kennedy was never meant to matter. The seventh of nine children, he's long been overlooked by his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who governs his children with the same firm hand that earned him a fortune, an ambassadorship, and enough clout to plant the seeds of an American political dynasty. But when Bobby's eldest brother, the anointed heir, dies in a wartime mission, the burden to become the first Kennedy in Congress shifts to Jack, the next in line. Bobby--long ignored and underestimated--is forced to step up, especially as debilitating chronic pain threatens Jack's Senate seat and aspirations to higher office. With their sights eventually set on the White House, Bobby evolves into the ruthless operative behind the scenes--yet at what personal cost? Throughout the chaos of campaign after campaign, Bobby finds an unexpected ally in his brother's wife, Jacqueline Bouvier. While Jackie smiles and waves for the cameras, in private, she leans on Bobby for understanding. Their friendship serves as a refuge from the public spotlight and private intrigue of the Kennedy family, but Jack's ongoing infidelity tests the boundaries of their loyalty, forcing Bobby and Jackie to each decide just how much they're willing to sacrifice for the dynasty's image. Centering on one of the most significant political families of our time, Carson Markland's riveting, hopeful debut is about brothers, fathers and sons, winners and losers, loyalty and sacrifice, and the true cost of power.
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The Amateur
by Chris Bohjalian
When a young woman, a golf prodigy, kills a caddy with a stray ball at the country club, the investigation of this freak accident reveals a dark and shocking tale of secret affairs and predatory men, and suddenly a teenager is on trial in this spellbinding novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Midwives and The Flight Attendant. 1978: It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a golf ball from her tee toward the practice net near the clubhouse and caddy shack. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, traveling 150 miles per hour, and slams, with sickening force, into the temple of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, rupturing an artery and unleashing a torrent of blood. Kenny brings his hand to the side of his head, then topples onto his side. He's dead before the ambulance even arrives. In the wake of this terrible accident--and everyone, at first, agrees it was an accident--Mira looks for comfort in all the wrong places: In her lover, Theo Catton, a married man three decades her senior. In her mother, a well-kept woman with secrets of her own. In the dead caddy's little sisters, girls bewildered by grief. But when the investigators look more closely at the torn net, when a detective recalls Mira's history of recklessness, and when Kenny's father spies Mira with her married lover, the affluent and mannered community turns on this once-promising young woman. A gripping story that takes the reader from the sun-soaked greens of a tony Westchester country club to the fluorescent-lit stand of a county courtroom, The Amateur asks: What happens when one small moment--a swing, a ball, a piece of string--changes the course of an entire life?
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You'll Love It Here
by Natalie Sue
NATALIE SUE'S WRITING IS: For someone who needs a good laugh.--Taylor Jenkins Reid - Phenomenal.--Forbes - Very feel good and laugh-out-loud funny. - Brooke Averick - Wickedly funny.--People - Surprisingly sweet and totally made my day.--Shelby Van Pelt - So good and also so unexpected.--Julia Quinn From the bestselling author of I Hope This Finds You Well comes a sharply funny, surprisingly tender novel about a woman stuck in place, her nosy neighbors, and the journey to find where she belongs--with all the heart of a grown-up The Breakfast Club.Mona thought her living situation was bad... but the real mess is just beginning.One day is all it takes for Mona's life to implode. After years of climbing at her marketing firm, she was supposed to be getting promoted and finally moving out of her crumbling apartment building. Instead, she's jobless, aimless, and still stuck in a space barely big enough for a yoga mat.Then her eccentric landlady takes a tumble and asks Mona to step in as the building's reluctant super. The deal is simple: help prep the place for sale, and she can secure the upgrade she's been chasing. But that's easier said than done when the neighbors treat boundaries as optional. There's the shouting couple, the mysterious shut-in, a possible panty thief in the laundry room--and Sami, the relentlessly cheerful diner owner who keeps showing up with coffee and unsolicited ideas about community. As Mona gets pulled deeper into the building's chaos--and closer to the people inside it--she's forced to confront what, and who, she's really been trying to outrun. Sometimes, the place you're desperate to leave is the one that finally shows you who you are.Wise, heartfelt, and laugh-out-loud funny, Natalie Sue's sophomore novel is a story about burning out, starting over, and finding your people in the most unexpected places--perfect for fans of The Wedding People and Anxious People.
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On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear
by Julia Angwin
A New York Times BestsellerINVALUABLE. A CLASSIC OF OUR TIME. Everybody should read it. --RACHEL MADDOWA deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian - based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across the world.The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s.But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay So You Want to Be a Dissident?, veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating - and profoundly hopeful - guide to courage in an age of fear.Meet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace, their community, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway - and how you can do it, too.Blending rich, previously untold narratives with history, spirituality, and movement research, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons - an inspiring resource for anyone, anywhere, who feel the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world.
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The Solo Honeymoon: A Brief Beautiful True Love Story
by Laura Murphy
A romantic, life-affirming memoir about a young woman's solo honeymoon to Europe after her fianc 's sudden death weeks before their wedding, and the community of hope and wonder she built along the way When Laura and Devon sat down to plan their honeymoon, Castellina in Chianti, Italy, was the obvious destination. Four months later, Laura found herself standing in a secret spot at the edge of the village watching the sunset. It would have been perfect, if Devon had been there with her. But Laura's fianc , the love of her life, had died in her arms a month before their wedding. The Solo Honeymoon follows Laura as she faces her fears and heartbreak by going alone on the honeymoon she had planned with Devon. From screaming from the mountaintops in Ireland to wandering the busy streets of London to dining on the French Riviera and watching the sun set over Castellina, Laura travels across Europe to find solid ground. Along the way, readers learn her unique love story and come to know Devon and what made their relationship so special. The result is a beautiful exploration of what it means to choose life in the face of unimaginable pain. The Solo Honeymoon shines a light on the joy of love, the depths of grief, and all the beauty there is in the world.
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Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing, and the Art of Storytelling
by Frank Miller
From the all-time bestselling mind behind Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, 300, and Sin City, Push the Wall is part memoir, part master class for budding artists and writers by one of the greatest living creators whose work has influenced pop culture for decades. Frank Miller is our greatest living comic book writer and artist. Frank Miller shares his life, and through, his artistic process. Miller's artistic influence is evident in so very much of our popular culture, perhaps most notably with Batman--every film adaptation from the past forty years has been influenced by Miller's work with the dark knight. Simply, Frank Miller has transformed the way comics are told. Here, Frank's mix of autobiographical lessons evokes Patti Smith's Just Kids as it weaves his struggles as a seventeen-year-old kid fresh from Vermont into a seedy 1970s New York City with his eventual success on reimagining Daredevil and Wolverine. From there to Miller's rescue and revitalization of Batman, to his time in Hollywood, the Sin City comics and film adaptations he would codirect, and the retelling of the Spartans' last stand in 300. Miller, by constantly challenging himself as an artist and writer on his terms, built an iconoclastic career. With over a dozen illustrations of Miller's art, Push the Wall is the work of his career--it is a masterclass as it encapsulates his life in sixteen lessons for the aspiring creative reader.
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The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made
by Caroline Hallemann
Two iconic dynasties--the Kennedys and the Windsors--whose glamour and ambition defined an era. ** For fans of FX's new Ryan Murphy limited series Love Story. ** For nearly a century, two families an ocean apart have captured the world's collective imagination: the British Windsors and the American Kennedys. Much ink has been spilled on their individual trysts, tragedies, and triumphs over the years, but no one has examined their powerful and intertwined legacies. Until now. In The Kennedys and the Windsors, acclaimed journalist Caroline Hallemann unearths the story of two iconic families whose lives, ambitions, and respective reigns have mirrored each other in surprising ways. Through rich archival research and fresh interviews from insiders on both sides of the Atlantic, Hallemann reveals how an upstart Irish Catholic family with little access into elite New England society came to host dinner parties for a King and Queen, and forge an eventual path to the White House. In the process, she draws out some startling parallels between the two families: the style icons Princess Diana and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (both tragically gone too soon), the frustrated second sisters Princess Margaret and Lee Radziwill, the scandal-plagued next generation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, and the current generation's shared struggle to figure out what a monarchy (actual or imagined) means in the twenty-first century. From Queen Elizabeth's coronation to President Kennedy's historic London visit, from JFK Jr.'s shocking death to Prince Harry's decisive break with his family, Hallemann traces the key moments in the lives of these two dynasties through a fresh and fascinating lens, showing how they have intersected over the generations in ways that not only shaped their images and legacies, but history itself.
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Byron Public Library District
100 S. Washington St.
Byron, Illinois 61010
(815) 234-5107byronlibrary.org |
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